Crowdsourcing the violations

Index on Censorship, the European Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders are joining forces to map the state of media freedom in Europe. With your participation, we are mapping the violations, threats and limitations that European media professionals, bloggers and citizen journalists face everyday. We are also collecting feedback on what would support journalists in such situations. This mapping project covers European Union member states and candidates for entry. Help protect media freedom and democracy by contributing to this crowd-sourcing effort.

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On 2 September, the first hearing will take place in a trial concerning three former senior editors of Taraf daily newspaper, Ahmet Altan, Yasemin Çongar and Yildiray Oğur; and two journalists, Mehmet Baransu and Tuncay Opçin. The undersigned organisations believe the trial to be politically motivated and call on the government to drop all charges against the accused and to immediately and unconditionally release Mehmet Baransu, who has been held in pre-trial detention since his arrest on 2 March 2015. The charges pre-date the 15 July coup attempt, which the undersigned organisations also condemned; however, this is a trial of…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and 9 other partner organisations have been on awarded on 19/08/2016 Turkey’s Press Freedom Award given by an independent jury under the auspice of the Turkish Association of Journalist (TGC). The prize wants to thank the international coalition for their involvement in emergency press freedom missions of 2015 in between the two elections in Turkey. Mr Kadri Gürsel, journalist and IPI’s Turkish National Committee chairman, received the prestigious prize on behalf of the international coalition. The EFJ warmly thanks the jury for this meaningful collective award and look forward to continue its work and…

Violence against journalists in Europe increased in the second quarter of 2016, reports submitted to Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom platform show, as a government crackdown in Turkey intensified and protests turned violent in countries from France to Finland. Between 1 April and 30 June 2016, Mapping Media Freedom’s network of 18 correspondents and other journalists submitted a total of 341 verified reports of violations of press freedom to the database, a 13% rise over the first quarter of 2016. The platform — a joint undertaking with the European Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, partially funded by the European Commission…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today condemned the murder of radio journalist Luka Popov in Srpski Krstur, Serbia. The Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS) and the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia (NUNS), two EFJ affiliates, and the Journalists Association of Vojvodina (DNV) have urged the police to carry out a swift investigation of this murder. Luka Popov, 60 years old, journalist for local radio stations in Čoka and Novi Kneževac, was killed on 16 June in his home in Srpski Krstur. He was found dead by his brother, this morning. The EFJ joined the alert about this tragic event published on Mapping…

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) organised on 9 June a debate about The truth about refugees – crisis, cover-up and the impact on media freedom at the Press Club in Brussels. The refugee issue is currently putting media under pressure. On the one hand, biased reporting – both for and against refugees – has led to increase distrust in the media. Jane Whyatt, Project Manager of the ECPMF, introduced the debate with examples from Eastern Germany, where right-wing populist movements and left-wing extremists movements accuse the mainstream media of lying and biased reporting. “We are trying…

(Dublin, 3rd June, 2016) The conference discussed the current state of journalism in Ireland and Europe and was hosted by MEP Nessa Childers from Ireland. Renate Schroeder outlined the threats on the independent status of journalists in Europe expressing great concern about the precarisation in the media as well the increasing attacks from both political and economic forces. Losing trust in journalism with journalists who no longer have time to check information or self-censor because of fear to lose the work or be attacked is the main challenge today, she told about 100 participants in Dublin. NUJ Ireland General Secretary…

The Institute of European Media Law (EMR), consortium partner of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), has recently conducted a study on the state of media freedom and investigative journalism in Europe. The results published on 17 May 2016 show that restrictive rules for the development of press freedom remain a major obstacle in all countries. 1. Decriminalisation of journalism = Hungarian model Journalists might infringe the law while trying to obtain information. According to the report, all legal frameworks know limits to the freedom of obtaining information. Even though in many states courts take into consideration the importance of press freedom…

On March 24, 2016 at 5:00 pm, a press conference in support for “freedom of information and freedom for journalists” in Turkey will be held in the district of Cağaloğlu in Istanbul, where representative of national and international professional media organisations will gather together. The conference is the result of a joint ongoing campaign launched by the Journalists Association of Turkey (TGC), the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), the Progressive Journalists Association (CGD), DISK-Basin Is trade union, Haber Sen trade union and the Turkish national press institute to set imprisoned journalists free. International media organisations. including EFJ, IFJ, IPI, EJN,…

WARSAW, Feb 1, 2015 – The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) and the International Press Institute (IPI) completed a two-day fact-finding mission to Poland by calling on Polish journalists to stand together in defence of principles of press and media freedom. The group’s call came after the newly elected Polish government rushed through controversial changes to the country’s public service broadcaster that have deeply divided the journalistic community. The changes, in the form of an amendment to the Media Law, allow the Minister of State Treasury to directly appoint and dismiss…

Developed by Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso (OBC) and the European Center for Press and Media Freedom Centre (ECPMF), the Media Freedom Resource Centre is a free and ever-growing online repository that gathers, selects, and categorise relevant content on media freedom and pluralism in Europe. In addition to ensuring systematic access to relevant and up-to-date publications, the Resource Centre includes also sections devoted respectively to legal instruments for the protection of media freedom in Europe, support centres for journalists under threat, training opportunities as well as multimedia and awareness campaigns on freedom of the press throughout Europe. You can browse all the…

Journalists, broadcasters and media freedom organisations have gathered this morning (13/01/2016) in front of the Polish Embassy in Brussels protesting against new attempt by the Polish government to control the media while the European Commission was discussing possible action against Poland. The EFJ has been heavily criticising the new law in the past weeks accusing Poland of violating European law on media freedom. It has written to the European Commission calling for prompt action against Poland. Today, the European Commission has discussed the first time at its college meeting the case of Poland and decided to launch action against Poland under…

The General secretary of the European Federation of Journalists, Ricardo Gutiérrez, has been quoted today in Politico as stating: “It’s been an awful year. I must say, five years ago I was not suspecting such a bad evolution.” The title of the article is very clear: “2015, an awful year for Europe’s free media – A year of arrests, assaults, legal restrictions and murder”. “It was a terrible year for journalists in Europe,” writes Alex Spence, the author of the article. “Attacks by Islamic militants, unjustified arrests, assaults, harassment, threats and tougher legal restrictions made it harder for editors, reporters and photographers…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has today welcomed the launch of a new research project by the Council of Europe (CoE) to assess the risk facing journalists across the 47 CoE member states. The EFJ, Reporter without Borders (RSF), International News Safety Institute (INSI) and Index on Censorship, are partners of the project “Journalists at Risk: part of the job?” and a working group to conduct a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative study on unwarranted interference, fear of crime and self-censorship among journalists in Europe, which is one of the most important issues facing the journalism community. The working life of journalists is often…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) are this week taking part in an emergency mission in Turkey in solidarity with journalists, media workers and the Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS) facing more repression than ever due to the forthcoming elections of November 1. “More than ever after the horrifying bombing on October 10 in Ankara killing more than 100 people and on the eve of the new elections, the international community needs to show strong and effective support to journalists and unionists fighting to defend freedom of expression against brutal censorship, violences, insults, repression, threats of…

Journalists and media workers in Turkey, Hungary and the Balkans are facing increased hostility as they do their jobs, according to a survey of the verified incidents reported to Index on Censorship-EFJ-RSF’s Mapping Media Freedom project. Since May 2014, Mapping Media Freedom project has been documenting media violations throughout the European Union, including candidate and neighbouring countries. The project is an interactive platform that allows the reporting, mapping and monitoring of threats to media freedom. Mapping Media Freedom is run in partnership with the European Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, and is partially funded by the European Commission. The…

Index on Censorship, the European Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders are delighted to announce the expansion and redesign of Mapping Media Freedom, which records threats to journalists across Europe, and which will now also cover Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. First launched in May 2014, the map documents media freedom violations throughout the European Union and neighbouring countries including the Balkans and Turkey. More than 700 reports were logged on the map in its first year, lifting the lid on the everyday threats to media freedom that have previously gone largely unreported or undocumented. “Mapping Media Freedom has highlighted…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), in partnership with Index on Censorship and Reporters Without Borders, has today (22/07/2015) published a new call for a crowd-sourced approach to map all violations, threats and limitations to media freedom in Europe. The online newsletter available on bit.ly/mappingmediafreedom1 is explaining step by step how to easily report the violations and use the mapping tool for advocacy. Correction for submission link (31/07/2015): https://mappingmediafreedom.org/reports/submit

Representative from 20 journalists’ organisations, publishing houses, academic institutions, trade unions and media experts from many European countries have launched the European Center for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) in Leipzig, Germany. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is among the founding members of the ECPMF. Mogens Blicher Bjerregård (EFJ President) and Liljana Smaijlovic (UNS President, Serbian Journalists’ Union) have been elected to the 8-member Executive Board, Naser Selmani (President of the Journalists’ Association of Macedonia) was elected into the Supervisory Board. The ECPMF is an independent non-profit European Co-operative Society (SCE). Its missions are to unite Europe’s highly fragmented media…

Attending the Deutsche Welle’s Global Media Forum 2015 in Bonn (22/06/2015), the European Commissioner Günther Oettinger referred in his speech to “media freedom and pluralism” as a “crucial value for the EU”. To give examples of concrete steps, the Commissioner mentioned different EU projects involving the active participation of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). “Whether a media outlet is so-called traditional or online, media practitioners will always have to be warranted the right to report facts and offer their views and opinions. Political pressure, economic hardship, physical attacks against journalists, restrictive legislation, and a general financial crisis in the sector all influence…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) took part to the international interactive media workshop called Uniting Global Media for Human Rights organised by the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD). The event held in Stavanger (Norway) on May 21-22 was also a good networking opportunity with the participation of human rights experts and journalists from around the world. The workshop discussed over two days issues including the freedom of expression, censorship and sharing of experience and knowledge while documenting human rights violations worldwide. On day one, Melody Patry (Index) gave a skype presentation about Mapping Media Freedom in Europe…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Index on Censorship are delighted to announce that Index project to map media freedom in Europe has received funding from the European Commission – one of just two projects selected. Mapping Media Freedom (#ecpmf)– launched as a pilot project in 2014 by Index on Censorship – records threats to media freedom throughout the European Union and EU candidate countries. In the last 12 months, more than 750 violations have been reported, including threats of violence, harassment, intimidation and legal penalties. The map includes threats faced by journalists and media groups at local as well…

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The Mapping media freedom project receives the financial support of the European Commission. All responsibilities regarding the contents and the actions belong to the authors only and should not be considered as reflecting the views of the European Union.